Crystal Malaise

The Beautiful Death

"I came upon a quaint village, Rangxi, looking for shelter against the biting winter. While not the greatest of times, the denizens of southern Ban Rei were known for their hospitality. I arrived expecting at least one generous household to open their doors for a weary traveler as myself. Instead, I found a settlement for the sick. People stuck in their homes with fevers to singe the skin; others remained listless in the streets, though still alive. I did not know what to make of it as I, perhaps foolishly then, made my way through the village. Then, as I passed by a home, I witnessed an afflicted villager explode! Its shards narrowly missed me, and then and there, I knew that that I must leave! I left Rangxi with great haste. Only decades later do I realize how fortunate I had been in that moment, for a single touch was all it took with the Beautiful Death..."

Transmission & Vectors

Any living thing that consumed or had contact with a substance known as Crystal Brew contracted the disease. Afflicted beings carried the disease but did not become infectious until the final stages. An infected individual violently expunged multitudes of crystal shards from the body at the point of death. These crystals then transmitted the disease by contact.

Causes

The Crystal Malaise affected only organic living beings, including humanoids, beasts, and plants. The initial source of the disease came from a magical liquid concoction called Crystal Brew. Both consumption and contact with the substance lead to affliction. After the disease killed a victim, crystalline shards launched from the body. These shards varied in size and shape but generally match the coloration of the creature's insides. Contact with the shards also resulted in infection.

Crystal Malaise thrived in actively living environments. The disease ran its full course through bodies of humanoids, animals, and plants as well as other monsters. It had been observed along the southern border of Ban Rei where climate ranges from tropical to moderately temperate. Weather and temperature did not directly affect its development within a victim. However, the crystals which transmitted the disease ceased to be infectious after prolonged exposure to air and water.

Symptoms

Crystal Malaise symptoms include fevers, aches and pains, clamminess, and loss of energy. The most notable change in victims' morphology is gradual weight gain; this change seems initially imperceptible, but in the later stages of the disease, random patches of solidifies flesh appear over the victim's body. These solid areas are so rigid that they eventually limit, if not completely impede, the infected individual's range of motion. Resulting effects from the physical symptoms include hallucinations, depression, and mania.

Treatment

Crystal Malaise remained incurable by mundane means during its active years. Those afflicted by the disease typically received support from narcotics and other medicines that numbed the pain and discomfort. Civilized populations took measures to prevent the Crystal Malaise's death burst by ensuring the death of a victim prior to the disease running its course. Otherwise, powerful healing magic proved effective in utterly removing the disease from afflicted individuals, but since the materials or the amount of power required for such magics was extremely rare, only a small percentage of the population of Ban Rei could afford such services until the arrival of Irva Ten-Sarad.

Prognosis

The Crystal Malaise takes anywhere from three weeks to two months to kill an afflicted individual. In the early stages after contracting the disease, the individual suffers from fever which gradually worsens. Eventually, the victim gains up twice of its body weight as its insides begin to solidify and manifest as hardened patches over its body; during this stage, they lose mobility. Finally, an afflicted individual dies from complications with losing its bodily functions to internal crystallization. At this point, the corpse explodes in a "death burst" that sends crystal shards carrying the disease into the environment.

There is no forecasted recovery for the Crystal Malaise at any stage. The most potent forms of magical healing and restoration can prevent and reverse the disease's progression up to the point of internal crystallization. Due to the warped state of the bodies, only a resurrection spell of the highest order can return an individual killed by the Crystal Malaise from death.

Sequela

There are no known survivors among individuals who contracted the Crystal Malaise and progressed through its final stages. For individuals who recovered from the Malaise via magical means, they retain patched of crystallization on their body, though most shrink or revert to unnoticeable levels within a decade.

Hosts & Carriers

Any naturally living being with advanced multi-cellular morphology can serve as carriers. Humanoids, beasts, and creatures with organic morphology are the most common victims of the Crystal Malaise; however, plants can also suffer from the disease. Any carriers become affected.

Prevention

Magic which protects an individual from disease has varying levels of effectiveness against the Malaise, which depends on the source and potency of the magic. Otherwise, the only way to avoid contracting the Crystal Malaise is to avoid all contact with infected individuals, the Crystal Brew, and any crystals launched by death bursts.

Epidemiology

The Crystal Malaise spreads out from populations that have consumed or made contact with the Crystal Brew. Due to the delay between the initial infection, contraction, and death, creatures that travel while afflicted spread the disease. Contact with the Crystal Brew, such as through water supplies, and death burst crystals spreads the disease; however, such carriers of the Malaise tend stop being infectious after dilution or prolonged exposure to air and water.

History

The Crystal Brew was purportedly created by an individual known as the Peddler sometime before 13 BR. In the winter of 13 BR, the Peddler conducted the first transaction of the Crystal Brew for livestock in a small village known as Rangxi near the southern border of the kingdom of Ban Rei. The village's inhabitants believed the concoction to prevent disease, taken preemptively in light of the coming cold weather. Instead, the village became infected as a whole by the disease, serving as the first known cases. The Peddler continued to sell the Crystal Brew in several villages as well as the major trading city of Toskang over the next few months. In 12 BR, the first recorded death due to the Crystal Brew occurred in Rangxi, and witnesses to the death burst reported the event which led to the disease to become known as the Crystal Malaise.

The Crystal Malaise continued to spread through the southern regions of Ban Rei over the next three years. Local governments and, eventually, the imperial government launched initiatives to contain and remove sources of the disease. The Crystal Malaise spread to the central regions of Ban Rei but failed to utterly encapsulate entire areas in the crystal due to government precaution, unlike in the south. Due to the crystalline remnants left by victims of the disease, swathes of land in southern Ban Rei became littered with crystals as corpses and crystal shards from death bursts were left in the area. Even as the pandemic spread throughout the nation, citizens named it the "Beautiful Death" for its aesthetics. In 9 BR, a sage known as Irva Ten-Sarad appeared in Ban Rei and convinced the imperial government to support their campaign to eradicate the Crystal Malaise through healing. Though a gamble, then Emperor Xin Kai-Rei trusted in the sage's ability after Ten-Sarad personally healed him of the ailment. By 8 BR, Ten-Sarad succeeded in wiping away the remnants of the Crystal Malaise and assumed a seat as an adviser to the Kai-Rei dynasty. No other records exist of the Crystal Brew nor of it resurfacing, and its source, properties, and current status remain a subject of debate and fear for modern Macaian scholars.

Cultural Reception

The Crystal Malaise remains one of the deadliest pandemics in Macaian history. Individuals afflicted with the disease were ostracized regardless of their previous ranks or affiliations. At worse, victims became the subjects of purges or forced euthanasia to prevent the Malaise's spread. Though discussed freely in the modern day, the imperial government marked the Beautiful Death a taboo for a thousand years following its last known case in 8 BR. In 991, the imperial government of Ban Rei formally acknowledged the Beautiful Death and memorialized the hundreds of thousands who died or were killed due to the Crystal Malaise's spread.

Type

Chemical Compound

Origin

Magical

Cycle

Short-term

Rarity

Unique